James R. Mirick sets the record straight on things he cares about

And the Government loses data yet again

Our government, which is supposedly protecting us from the ravages of cyber-terrorists, can't even protect its own data on us from casual hacking (from the AP):

A hacker broke into the Agriculture Department's computer system and may have obtained names, Social Security numbers and photos of 26,000 Washington-area employees and contractors, the department said Wednesday . . . The break-in happened during the first weekend in June, the department said. Technology staff learned of the breach on June 5 and told Johanns the following day but believed personal information was protected by security software, the department said. However, on further analysis, staff concluded that data on current or former employees might have been accessed and informed Johanns on Wednesday, according to the department.

This isn't just a one-time mistake, to remind you we have suffered the following data losses at the hands of these geniuses:

As many as 26.5 million people may have been affected by the theft of a laptop computer containing Veterans Affairs information including Social Security numbers and birth dates. The computer was taken from the home of a VA employee, and officials waited nearly three weeks before notifying veterans on May 22 of the theft.

Earlier this month, the Health and Human Services Department discovered that personal information for nearly 17,000 Medicare beneficiaries may have been compromised when an insurance company employee called up the data through a hotel computer and then failed to delete the file.

Social Security numbers and other information for nearly 1,500 people working for the National Nuclear Security Administration may have been compromised when a hacker gained entry to an Energy Department computer system last fall. Officials said June 12 they had learned only recently of the breach.

This, while our legislators are spending their time focused on the definition of marriage and passing laws to prevent flag-burning, and the Administration is spending IT'S time attemptiing to peel away our privacy in the name of Counter-Terrorism. I don't know which is worse, incompetence or venal power-mongering. But why do we have to make that choice? Why can't we just do it right?